Promise Zones Launched in Five Communities

On Thursday, Jan. 9, President Obama announced the first five “Promise Zones,” where local communities and businesses will work together to create jobs, increase economic security, expand educational opportunities, increase access to quality, affordable housing, and improve public safety. Announced in last year’s State of the Union Address, the Promise Zones Initiative is part of the President’s plan to create a better bargain for the middle-class.

The first five Zones — in San Antonio, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Southeastern Kentucky, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma — have put forward plans for how they will partner with local business and community leaders to make investments that reward hard work and expand opportunity. Click here for a fact sheet on the Promise Zones Initiative and the key strategies of each of the five Zones.

“In a country as great as this one, a child’s zip code should never be what determines his or her opportunity,” said Domestic Policy Council Director Cecilia Muñoz in a White House blog about the new initiative. “The government can’t fix this on its own, but it can be a much better partner in helping local leaders develop policies that improve education, protect the most vulnerable, and encourage the entrepreneurial spirit.”

In three of the Zones, OII’s Promise Neighborhoods will play an important role as one of the added community tools resulting from the Administration’s place-based investments. In Los Angeles, for example, the Promise Neighborhoods initiative will be instrumental in expanding a full-service community schools model from seven schools to all 45 Promise Zone schools by 2019. The other Promise Neighborhoods playing integral roles in the new Zones are in San Antonio and Southeastern Kentucky.